SESAME, or Standard Elements in Studies of Adverse Events and Medical Error, is a reporting guideline for patient safety researchers conducting studies on adverse events and medical error. Its purpose is to encourage transparent, complete reporting of research, making findings easier to reproduce, compare, and bring together. The initiative responds to documented gaps in the field: important study details are often omitted, researchers’ adherence to their stated methods may be unclear, and inconsistent definitions can make findings difficult to interpret.

SESAME aims to address these challenges by promoting more consistent reporting and clearer understanding across studies. The website provides the SESAME Checklist, along with resources and publications related to the guideline, and information about its development team. By supporting standardized descriptions of research methods and findings, SESAME is intended to help readers assess studies and support the accumulation of knowledge in patient safety.

The guideline is relevant to a research environment in which medical journals and funders increasingly expect reporting standards to support high-quality methods